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Pole Day Qualifying - Fast Nine Press Conference

May 19, 2012 | By Transcript

THE MODERATOR: Given the fact we have four with us, we thought we would get started. Here is four of the drivers who have survived a very long day, obviously a change in conditions. We have heard a lot of stories in the various interviews today about cars that performed as they liked, twists and tails that are always part of a qualification at Indianapolis. We have Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Josef Newgarden and E.J Viso.

Q. Tony, what was the plan for you guys nothing there?

TONY KANAAN: The plan was to put it in the top nine only once, but then we got DQ, and then when we made it to the fast nine, I don't think we had it.

So we looked at the speeds and we looked at the cars and we are going to be fighting between me, Viso and Josef. That's where we still are, so I decided not to go. I think it was smarter. We had a pretty smooth month so far. If I felt that I had a car to put it on the pole, of course I was going to be out there pounding around.

But I didn't feel the speed wasn't there. I enjoyed watching, actually. I was waving at Marco, said hi to him on the inspection and stuff, and I just watched.

Q. Your call?

TONY KANAAN: No, it was our call. But we talked to the owners, and I can't make the calls alone. My name is although it's KV, it's not Kanaan says there so no. (Laughter).

THE MODERATOR: Your first lap of qualifying, we could hear the roar in here. People were excited about your run you and made a great effort to get it done and came up just a little short.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Yeah, the smallest of margins. It's heartbreaking in a sense but the end of the day we get to start on the front row for the Indy 500 and that's the coolest thing ever. It's been a huge team effort, you see our cars were second, third and fourth on the grid. The other two drivers that made the show today, it's awesome to see the kind of results that we are getting because these guys have been working so hard.

And having the Go Daddy car in the front row is exciting. Like I said, I'm going to lose a little bit of sleep over how small that margin was to Ryan and to know that we had it for three or four laps, but that's Indy, man. It's a gust of kind; it's a shadow over a corner that changes, and that can sometimes be the difference.

But at the end of the day, it's great result for us.

THE MODERATOR: I do want you to repeat what you said to me when you looked up at the board.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I said, "226.484, those numbers will haunt me for the rest of my life."

Q. I remember a different press conference last year from team Andretti, and you weren't part of that, but you remember it, as well. Are we ready now to say that there is no longer just big two, but perhaps big three with you in that number and with Andretti in that number?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I have a little bit of ways to go before I'm at Ryan and Marco's level. They have both been around longer and are both race winners and I still have to earn those things. It's cool that off the bat I have been able to keep pace with them and compete with them. You've heard it so much from us this year and even especially this month, how well we are working together is awesome. We really are just one unit of three guys rather than three units of single car team sort of thing.

It's just incredible to see three people in such a competitive environment able to work so closely together and share that information and really push each other. I think that's where these results are coming from.

Q. Andretti, Penske, Ganassi

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: There's three Andrettis in the top four, you tell me.

Q. James, since 2009, your sponsor has put a lot of emphasis on the Indianapolis 500. Talk about how it would be to be the driver that gives them the victory here?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I don't even want to think about it. You start thinking about winning the race, you're not going to win the race; you jinx yourself.

Go Daddy, they have been such an incredible sponsor of this series and they have been so good to me; they have treated me so well in the last six months. It really has been more fun than I ever thought this job could be.

And I just want to give them their first win and if it happens to be at the 500, it makes it exponentially better. But at the end of the day, we want to get into victory lane this year and we want to do it for the team and for myself and like you say, forgo daddy. They have given this sport so much and it's time we gave a little back.

Q. In a lot of ways, you've connected with the fans because you're not afraid to interact with them. You'll walk back to the pits and sign autographs and talk to them before the driver that as we said would get in the and buzz on out of here. How much has that helped with your popularity here?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I don't know. I'm just me, man. The big thing is I was the kid with the marker and a hero card for a long time. I was on the other side of the fence for a long time, so I know what it means for somebody to stop and sign an autograph. Obviously we are really busy and especially at the racetrack, you're running back trying to get de briefs and stuff.

I get yelled at by my engineers every once in awhile because I'm always the last guy back after a session. It's part of our sport. As much as drivers like to think we are here for us to go racing, we are really here to put on a show for the fans. So it's a small thing for us to do.

Q. Three-1,000ths of a second is literally the speed it takes to blink your eye.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: It's considerably less than that, actually.

Q. I'll have to check that on Google. As you think about it and go through your run, do you have any idea where you've lost that three 1,000s of a second?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Three 1,000s of a mile an hour, which average over four laps the only reason I kind of know is this because last year I missed out on fastest rookie to J.R. Hildebrand by four 1,000ths of a mile an hour and I can tell you route now, over four laps, ten miles, that's the physical distance that I lost it by. So, yes, I've thought long and hard about how those 10 miles unfolded, and where that could have been. (Laughter).

Q. Before we go forward, let's welcome Ryan Hunter Reay who did a tremendous job getting on the front row. We chatted earlier, we saw you agonize in this press conference room when you had a car that could not find speed and now you have a race car that has lots of speed.

RYAN HUNTER REAY: Yeah, and I definitely prefer this side of it. It's a lot more fun this way. It's been a really enjoyable week, and to have it come down to this where we are fighting for the pole and really have a legitimate shot at getting the pole at Indy has been so much fun. It's been all down to the team. This team has worked so hard over 364 days now, just a complete turnaround.

I cannot thank them enough for giving me such a fast race car. We let Briscoe have it today but hopefully next week we'll go out and go two better and win this thing.

Man, what a deal today. I thought that last lap, that last outing when we did the 226.5 or whatever, the car felt the best I've ever had it and I thought maybe, just maybe, we could stay at 226.5 or maybe go quicker. I wasn't breathing much, I was just holding my breath and making sure everything was perfect and the car was having every bit of room it wanted. That's what Indy is about, enjoying that. It's good to be here.

Q. James, you're lighthearted and everything, how does your personality change when you slip into the cockpit and take off on a run like that?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I try to have a lot of fun outside the car, because let's face it, I've got the coolest job in the world. So it's pretty easy to enjoy it. I think some people get kind of lost in it and they don't enjoy it in the moment and we are here for such a short period of time, it would be a shame to not enjoy the time you're given.

But at the end of the day, I take my job very seriously and I take the racing very seriously. Yeah, there is, there's a switch, once the helmet goes on and the visor goes down, the lighthearted, jovial character sort of disappears a little bit and you have to get down to business.

So it's something I've worked on a little bit. I've worked with a sports psychologist for a number of years when I was younger to learn how to flick that switch and get that job done what I had to.

Q. Can you talk about the warmup lap? Was it 227, was that right?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Yeah (sighing). Let's talk about that.

Q. Did that warmup lap maybe cost you the pole?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Yeah, probably. The thing is, I mean, I did nothing different than I have ever other qualifying attempt and every other qualifying simulation throughout practice, the exact same routine and I've never had a warmup lap quicker than my first flyer. The car just seems to wind p around here and I just haven't seen it.

I did everything exactly the same, and when I saw that 227 in the warmup, I thought, all right, this will do, because it's probably going to go quicker. And it didn't. It didn't go quicker. It went a fraction slower on the first flyer and that definitely concerned me a little bit because we have seen the tires fall off a little bit as the run goes on.

Man, yeah, that's why we went back out. We thought if we had a little bit of a slower warmup lap, we would have a little bit more in the tank to do it but unfortunately it just wasn't in the cards today.

Q. This is a question for both of you. Most of the drivers saw their times fall way off from the first run to the second run, or in a couple of cases, the third run. Both of you were able to keep your speed or increase your speed. How much did the car change from the first run in the last 90 minutes to the second, and then also, how are you guys able to keep the speed up when a lot of other drivers couldn't?

RYAN HUNTER REAY: I don't know, that's a good question. I don't know.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: We could tell you but we would have to kill you.

RYAN HUNTER REAY: When we are out there on a hot racetrack, hopefully that means we are going to do the same thing next week.

We kept making changes to the 28 car, and we were trying anything we could to get it going. We knew we needed a pretty calm wind to make it happen. If you have a headwind or a tailwind here, you're going to be fighting it one way or the other.

So to have it pretty calm would be critical and we were sitting there staring at the flags hoping we would get it right. But it was definitely a balance improvement when we went out and I think that was down to the changes we made. I definitely have to thank the crew and team for that.

As we have been saying all month, the team work has been awesome. We have been interchangeable, different set ups moving around, different changes, one guy finds something that works and we plug it right on our car and vice versa; the way it should be. It's been a very efficient process.

Q. When all of the Turbogate stuff was going on, was either one of you worried about how good Chevrolet would be here?

RYAN HUNTER REAY: Of course you're worried. Honda is a very able engine manufacturer. They know how to win races and any time they can add anything, you're thinking, oh, boy, what's it going to be like, you know. But Chevy has done a tremendous job.

Q. And if you would both answer this, do you have a better race car or a better qualifying car?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Tell you in eight days.

I mean, I think we made a lot of good progress with the race car being able to have a team of five cars and go out there and sort of orchestrate a little bit of a mini race was awesome, and then tremendously beneficial.

Again it just goes back to what Ryan was saying about the team work, and people will try and crash our party and we didn't like that.

But I think we are in a pretty good position, and it really just is going to come down it's a long race. It's a lot of clean pit stops and a lot of good strategy calls it's going to take to win it but we have race cars as good as our qualifying cars.

THE MODERATOR: Not sure your own teammates saw this coming, no discredit to you, but they didn't see it and here you are.

RYAN BRISCOE: I don't know how many times I've been here and I've been in both those seats before that we have rolled out feeling good and next thing, Helio goes out and goes a mile an hour quicker than everybody. I'm just glad it was my turn.

Q. What's it like when you go out and it's your teammate that can knock you out of the top spot?

RYAN BRISCOE: It's usually like that. It's usually like that and we prepare the cars so evenly and we always know we are going to head into pole day or race day going up against each other. It's just part of the game, but what we do is work so hard with each other and help each other throughout all of the practice sessions so that we make that possible.

Because we want to be racing each other for the front, not for mid pack, and I think the team work is how we get to the front. We have been working really hard together throughout all the practice sessions on race setup. And qualifying is a bit of a solo deal, but we share all the information.

We talk about how the car feels and how the drop off is with the tires and all of that. It's totally transparent at Team Penske and always has been. I think that's what Roger and Tim really pride themselves on.

Q. In many ways, winning the pole for the Indy 500 is going to be a lot more exposure than winning another IndyCar Series race. Talk about what you have coming up ahead of you. You're going to be the face of the race leading into next Sunday?

RYAN BRISCOE: Well, I mean, I've never done so much race work going into a qualifying weekend. I felt Thursday night, like we had done really, really good work on our race cars. We are going to do a bit more of that tomorrow.

But I feel like most of the focus has been on the race car. A week ago, I don't think we thought we were going to have a shot at the pole. And you know, we have just worked so hard, we have gotten the car a lot more consistent. Chevy has done an awesome job. I think this extra boost has certainly favored the Chevrolet cars and we took advantage of it.

Q. From an exposure standpoint, you're going to get a lot of attention this week being the Indy 500 pole.

RYAN BRISCOE: Sounds good.

Q. Talk about what that is like, Helio has experienced it four times, and now you get a chance to experience it.

RYAN BRISCOE: I'm just going to take it. We've got a few days off, so you know, the exposure is good. Certainly the focus is the race, and I'm sure I'll have no problem getting my priorities in line.

Q. All week long your team was a little bit off the pace. The whole team was a couple mile an hour off of where the Andrettis, in particular, were running. About four o'clock yesterday afternoon, you guys went out and gained about three miles an hour, just like that. Did you find something yesterday afternoon?

RYAN BRISCOE: I don't know if I ever felt that way to be honest. I think we have been making lots of small gains but there was nothing dramatic that gave us three mile an hour. Definitely when we had the increase in boost that everybody got, that was a huge gain.

But we have not been out there all week searching for the big tows and putting the big lap times on the board although it did happen, Helio was second at the end of one of the days and we were second I think at the end of yesterday maybe.

But yeah, I mean, it's been a work in progress, and here it's all about fine tuning. You're not doing anything big.

Q. How confident do you feel with all of the Chevys up front? I know you benefitted today with the extra boost, but no failures that I know of. You've just been really superior and it's been the superior program this month, and did you expect that in all of the hearing, wrangling that went on?

RYAN BRISCOE: We have not been happy about the outcome of the Turbogate. Seemed like a bit of an unfair rule change but Chevy has worked hard.

You know, we just kept our heads down. I can't tell you how proud I am to run with the bow tie here. The history of Chevrolet and their involvement, I mean, it's just they are there, every step of the way. They continually are giving us updates and they just don't stop working.

So you know, we are extremely happy to have Chevrolet engines. They will certainly, they are certainly the motor to have today, and they have been, I believe, all year long. We are going to work hard to keep bringing those wins home for them.

Q. With all of the changes in the car and everything else in the end, it's still Team Penske. What sets this team apart? What sets Roger apart from everybody else?

RYAN BRISCOE: Well, I mean, it's the preparation. It's definitely the preparation. But I think it's the experience. Over 600 years of experience on the team that's a quote from Roger. I haven't done that tally.

But it adds up. All of these guys with all of this experience, and Roger's own experience; Helio's experience, Rick Mears' experience, all of these guys, all of our mechanics are so experienced. I think that helps us once we get here to do things methodically, not get ahead of ourselves, never get overconfident and just keep working hard.

But it all starts with the preparation.

Q. Down deep inside what does this pole today really mean for you as a person? I know it means a lot for the team but just talk about what it means to you for your first pole here at Indianapolis?

RYAN BRISCOE: It's hard not to just be thinking about a starting position for the race. But I guess it's an award where my name will go down forever as something I've won here at the Indy 500.

You know, this race is just so important; it's so big, and I think even just a pole win here is remembered. So it's a great feeling. They were four really good laps and I was proud of myself and the team for the setup they gave me today. They were really consistent. It was lap four that got me the pole today. It wasn't the outright speed that we had. It was the consistency we had over four laps.

It's just a great feeling. 17 poles for Roger here at the Indy 500 and to have my name on the list of drivers that have done that for him, it's a great feeling.

Q. When you think of all the names that have won races and poles here and now Ryan Briscoe is part of that, that has to really be something that you really thought about when you joined this team was something that you would like to do, but now you've actually done that.

Q. You talked about how you're all for one, one for all, but how seriously would you have felt if one of your own teammates knocked you off the pole?

RYAN BRISCOE: Well, wouldn't have been the first time, would it. So, hey, it's just part of the game, and as I said before, you know, we work together. We push each other hard all the time, and it's great that we are often competing against each other all the time, whether it's here or the road courses or any track. We always seem to be going head to head for the pole and obviously this one means more than any of the others. But it would have been nice to be sitting here with both my teammates on the front row with me. But we have got three cars in the front two rows and that's a massive accomplishment.

Q. Probably would have been more dramatic to go out as the last guy and knock somebody else off, but I take it you were fairly comfortable just sitting in the car sweating while it happened?

RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, it was hot. But I was ready to go. If we had to go, I was ready to go, and you know, I felt like we could have at least done the same again. We weren't going to make any changes, but I was ready. I was focused and that was the big thing just sitting in there for an hour and a half, just trying to keep focused and trying to keep cool.

It looked like second run on the motors, they might have been losing a bit of horsepower, and so I was a little bit more comfortable having seen the Andretti cars go through the second time and not better their speeds. It made me a little bit more comfortable.

But Hunter-Reay, he had a good run that last run and I was ready gloves on, ready to go.

Q. Can you even fathom how small, was it three 1,000s of a second is?

RYAN BRISCOE: Well, I think that's a lesser margin than I beat Dixon to win Chicago a few years ago and that was like crossing the line side by side. That's how close it was, if you had the ghost car out there, we would have been crossing the line side by side. A hell of an accomplishment by Hinchcliffe. He did a great job and he may have just burnt up his tires a bit much on the warm up lap.

THE MODERATOR: Side bar note. His pole speed, the difference of 23 thousandths of a second for four laps, the ten miles, is 9.168 inches. So over the 10 mile run, 9.168 inches.

RYAN BRISCOE: I told him he should have ducked his head coming down the straight.

Q. The two guys starting to your right are going to be pretty formidable foes. Talk about how Andretti has stepped themselves up and even Roger looks at them as being the favorites; that they are the guys you've got to beat?

RYAN BRISCOE: You know Andretti, they are always strong here in the race. And the surprise was how good they were in qualifying, because normally they are a little bit off in qualifying, but really bring it in the race.

They have been strong in race runs. I feel like we have been just as strong, though, and I feel like there are a lot of cars out there that have been strong. I think it's going to be a pretty wild race. I think nobody is going to be able to pull away. There's going to be a lot of passing. It's going to be a pretty grueling 500 mile race, and it's going to be hard to predict a winner until you see them come out of turn four and maybe even then, you won't know it.

So it's going to be a tough race. I think it's going to be all about executing on the day, not making mistakes, having good pit stops and keeping your nose clean.

THE MODERATOR: Will, it's an interesting format, and we have similar formats in the road courses. Just your thoughts about the day overall, and you made a couple of runs at the top spot and came up just a little bit short.

WILL POWER: Yeah, it was strange to me, our speed kind of really dived there. We were wide open the whole time and the car was very comfortable. You know, this place is very wind sensitive, temperature sensitive.

Yeah, I was happy with top five. This morning I would have said I thought six was about as good as I could get, so fifth is not bad.

Q. Now over the years, having done a lot of these, we hear a lot of, well, things change but for some reason it seems like we have heard more of that in this press room that things dramatically changed and set up was about the same. Did it feel that way to you or it just typical Indianapolis from your perspective?

WILL POWER: Yeah, Indy is funny, every now and then, a guy will do a run and just go much go, bam, put out a big time and you'll have no clue why or what happened. That's what it seemed like today again. And it seemed like that for me this morning. I didn't expect to go that fast.

Yeah, it's that sort of place. I think 2010 Helio punched out a mega time, 28.0.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I don't know, I guess you guys are following me. You take my thunder away. But good for him.

WILL POWER: Sorry. How was your day?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: My day was actually I really pushed, man.

WILL POWER: Just tell us about the run and your afternoon.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I don't understand, because we were actually doing pretty good, 226 over there and all of a sudden it was 224.

WILL POWER: I was expecting you to go out and do 26.

RYAN BRISCOE: 27.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Happy for Ryan and happy for the team. I feel that we both helped in a way because we are always sharing information and that's the way we do it.

WILL POWER: We really helped in that we were slower, which allowed him to (Laughter).

HELIO CASTRONEVES: But you know, in the end of the day, you've got to have one fast guy, and he was able to make it happen. So it's a very this place, it's very difficult. You can't understand. If you think you understand, forget it, because it's going to drive you crazy, and today, it just proved that Ryan, consistent, ended up taking the pole today.

So happy for the number three shopping ultra and Team Penske to have three cars in the Top 6.

WILL POWER: Pretty good.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I'm happy; we can win the race starting from six.

THE MODERATOR: That's pretty strong effort, guy. We had a little less of an effort from the group we had here.

Q. So you truly have no clue why your teammate was awhile an hour faster?

WILL POWER: Man, I'll tell you, conditions change. Like you get a gust of wind, it's really like that. But he was consistently quick for four laps. He went we will over a mile an hour quicker than he had gone all day, or all month.

Yeah, it is a strange place. I was surprised at how fast I was this morning. I went out, suddenly 25.9, quicker than I had ever gone, for what reason, not sure. But that's Indianapolis, and I think it's great for the team to get a pole because I really didn't think we do. I thought that

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I thought we had a good chance.

WILL POWER: Actually I thought you had a good chance.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I never thought we never had a chance. Never lost faith. I knew we had three good cars. I felt like our car was a little bit stronger, especially the many tries that we did in practice above 226 that I felt very strong. But it wasn't meant to be.

Q. Knowing Ryan as you do, what do you think the significance of the pole is for him personally and also why is it so important for Roger Penske, this is number 17 with 11 different drivers.

WILL POWER: For Ryan, it will be a massive deal. He loves this place. I think he had a bit of a rough start to the season, so, you know, it all comes around, doesn't it.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah.

WILL POWER: It all works out in the end. I think that's going to be a big tick in the box for him. I mean, he's been searching for that one for a while.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I agree. For him, it's a big deal. Pole position, No. 2 of the season for him, and especially here in Indianapolis, a place that he's been second before, and so he knows how to go around for sure.

I'm honestly very happy for him.

Q. How about for Roger Penske, this is number 17.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Roger, he loves this place, and I have his car that he commands from the race, I think starting from the pole for him is even more special. You should ask this question for him but from my point of view, he always says, when one guy wins, the team wins. And today, Ryan is the guy that put the Team Penske up there.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about the changes that has gone through and the weather today. Can you give us an idea, your fastest and the changes you made to adapt to the weather?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yes, when you're running like that in a very limited conditions, we really trimmed out and tried everything we could. We started going a little bit crazy to a point that it started becoming a little stupid. We were able to manage all of these little changes. Like I said, this place, it's amazing. If you get the right time and have the right equipment, you're probably going to be the guy.

But for me, I'm very happy with the way my car was handling out there for so many runs that I did, and able to go flat out without any issues, for me, I'm very I'm looking forward for the race to be honest.

Q. Was it any easier the second qualifying session than it was in the first?

RYAN BRISCOE: First of all, this place is never easier. You can say less difficult maybe. But certainly, you always have to keep your mind focused on this place. You can never think, just because you are a mile an hour slower that it doesn't make a difference. You know, when something goes wrong here, it goes wrong big.

But in the end of the day, I felt that all of the runs that I did, I tried everything I could.

Q. Both of you, when you go out in the morning or the early, first qualifying round, do you show everything you've got or do you hold back a little bit knowing you can be up in the first three rows?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I show everything I've got to be honest. I guess that the temperature was a little cooler in the air, so maybe that's why times change. That's why sometimes it's good for practice because you go and get warm and go again.

But yes, right at this time, I learned my lesson last year playing conservative. This year, I didn't want to do it begin.

Q. You've won the pole here four times, so you know what it's like to have you're the king of the week and when you ran, you were actually the king for two weeks. Talk a little about how winning the Indy 500 pole gets a driver probably more exposure than winning another IndyCar Series race. Talk about what Ryan will have in store for him this week in terms of being the guy that's going to be the face of the Indy 500 this year.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Certainly for him, he's going to have a long week ahead of him, a lot of publicity, which is good, and good for him, good for our sponsors. Not only that, I don't think he's going to be sleeping very well. He's going to be very anxious to go to the race, at least that's what happens. You kind of know that you have a good car and good speed and you have to go for it, but you have to pace yourself.

We are going to practice tomorrow. He might go out and he actually, when we used to have the whole month, we did not practice on Monday. We just shake down the cars and everything. So we used to go out and celebrate the Saturday, but I don't think he's going to do that. Going to have to practice tomorrow, we have to continue working on the race car now. Focus changes completely.

The only tough part is waking up very early in the morning to take the picture, because you want to stay out late. But that's a good refresh. Put it this way, he's going to enjoy it very much, and I'm happy for him.

Q. As far as the news coverage, he's going to be the guy that everybody is going to be talking about leading into the race.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Certainly people will recognize much better, you're right. Anything you do here in Indianapolis, it's bigger than any other race. Indy, you're talking about Indianapolis, everything knows, everybody heard.

So when you succeed here, it's going to be bigger than any other race.

Q. I understand that there could be the way the car is this year, a boost penalty if you go over a certain amount.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Correct.

Q. I was curious if either of you experienced that in practice or if it even happened today in qualifying, and maybe you could describe how much speed wise you might be losing, how it would affect you, and I assume it's going to be in effect in the race as well even though you'll go back to the normal boost.

WILL POWER: It's a big hit if you get a boost penalty. You lose a couple of mile an hour on that lap. It's just how IndyCar polices the amount of boost you can run, so they have a very harsh penalty which if you go over that for the engine manufacturers.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: If you are in the race, if you have that, you might be passed, because it's like you're pushing the brake.

Q. You've grown up with Roger Penske; talk about why has he been in your mind so successful here, even before you came, and how you've seen growing up with him and all of the poles and wins he has.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: For me, Roger is very passionate about racing. He's a great human being. He has not only people think it's a hobby for him but actually, it's not. This is business. He likes to be involved. In fact, he was pretty much every day here, and wants to know and be on top of it. At the end of the day, he calls the shots, especially on the car No. 2. So when you see someone with that experience and that success, and still with the love for the sport, you start to admire that's why we call him the Captain. Because we are the shirt, you know, like we are really part of the team. It's not about me or we or Ryan. It's about Team Penske.

Today when Ryan is in the pole position, we are happy. I mean, obviously we want to be in his shoes, but you know, we have three we are honored to be driving for him, and if we are driving for him, that's because we deserve it.

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Pole Day Qualifying - Fast Nine Press Conference

May 19, 2012 | By Transcript
Given the fact we have four with us, we thought we would get started. Here is four of the drivers who have survived a very long day, obviously a change in conditions. We have heard a lot of stories in the various interviews today about cars that performed as they liked, twists and tails that are always part of a qualification at Indianapolis. We have Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Josef Newgarden and E.J Viso.

December 07, 2016 | By John Schwarb, IMS
Don’t miss your chance to see history unveiled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum on Wednesday, December 7 at 5 p.m. Champion of the 100th Running of the Indy 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil, Alexander Rossi, will have his likeness unveiled on the coveted Borg-Warner Trophy during a special ceremony on the museum’s main floor. Fans are invited to attend with paid admission to the museum.

December 07, 2016 | By IMS
Don’t miss your chance to see history unveiled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum on Wednesday, December 7 at 5 p.m. Champion of the 100th Running of the Indy 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil, Alexander Rossi, will have his likeness unveiled on the coveted Borg-Warner Trophy during a special ceremony on the museum’s main floor. Fans are invited to attend with paid admission to the museum.

December 07, 2016 | By INDYCAR
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced today that veteran driver Oriol Servia will return to the team for the 2017 Indianapolis 500, with the hope of adding more races during the Verizon IndyCar Series season.